Friday, July 27, 2007

Never Get Busted Again

Although I was inspired to blog because of the MRA movement, I purposely chose the Blogger name, Hawaiian Libertarian, because I did not want to have to constrain myself to only blogging about MRA/anti-feminism issues. I am a registered Libertarian and I believe in most of their political platform - including the elimination of drug prohibition laws.

I oppose this simply because I believe the government should not have the power to tell individuals what substances they can or cannot consume, and that prohibition has created problems far worse for society than the problems associated with people who become addicted to a legal substance.

It really has nothing to do with the fact that I like to recreationally indulge every now and then with some of Hawaii's finest homegrown...

Like drugs? An ex-narcotics agent reveals the secrets to staying one step ahead of the lawBy Neel Shah

During his eight-year stint as a cop in Texas—two of them as head of narcotics for the Gladewater Police Department—Barry Cooper made over 800 drug-related arrests, impounded more than 50 vehicles, and seized at least $500,000 in cash and assets. He worked with everyone from the DEA to the FBI to border patrol, earning a reputation as the "best narcotics officer in the state, and perhaps the country," according to a former colleague. So what did Cooper, now married with four kids, learn from his experience?

"The war on drugs is an utterly losing proposition," he tells Radar. "We caused more harm breaking up families to put non-violent drug offenders in jail than the drugs ever did. And for what? To eradicate 1/10th of a percent of drugs on the street."

Cooper's epiphany stems in part from a few legal skirmishes of his own—he's been arrested five times (all non-drug-related offenses), though convicted only once, of a misdemeanor verbal assault charge. Plenty of cops lose faith in the system, but Cooper's 180 was so complete, he's now helping people to subvert it. Never Get Busted Again, in stores this September (or available now through his website), is a DVD compendium of advice for potheads looking to avoid the po-po, breezily narrated by the man formerly tasked with putting them behind bars. "I really just felt guilty about what I had done with my life," says Cooper. "This was the least I could do."

Because potheads have notoriously short attention spans, we asked Cooper to boil down his DVD into easy-to-read bullet points. Safe toking.

Read the whole thing...this former narc gives excellent advice - especially concerning beating drug-detecting dogs and how to interact with police if and when you are pulled over. Some of the things, I already knew...but some of it I didn't.